Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of English
Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Master Degree in English Language Sciences
Candidates: Supervisor: -Asma Chemchem- Loubna Kouira
-Nouha Lalaoua
Board of Examiners:
- Supervisor: Loubna KOUIRA, University of Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia - Examiner:MalikaNOURI, University of Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia
- Chairperson: Messaouda ARZIM, University of Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia
2016
A Study of Students’ Motivation to Develop Proficiency in
Listening Comprehension
A Case Study of Third Year Students at the Department of English, University of Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia
Dedication
This work is dedicated to the almighty God for giving us the grace, courage and strength to fulfill it.
We dedicate this work:
- to my father and mother, whose affection, love, encouragement, and prayers of day and night make me able to get such success,
- to my dear brother Youcef, for being my hero,
- to my sisters Meriem, Anfel, and Douaa for always motivating and supporting me,
- to my grandmother, for being the sweetest ever,
- to the memory of my grandfather, you left fingerprints of grace in our life. You cannot be forgotten,
- to my cousin and my best friend Houda, for always being there for me,
- to my sweetest friend and partner Nouha for being so caring and supportive along the completion of this work.
- to the sweet soul who was always and will forever be on my side, the one who supports and encourages me endlessly, I thank you for the love, the care, and the passion you planted in me, my mother,
- to my father who was always my guiding star throughout my educational journey, thank you for your pieces of advice and kind words,
- to my two beloved and kind sisters; Nada and Abir, thank you for your encouragement and help,
- to my only brother, the caring Chihab, thank you for your affection and support,
- to my grandfather and grandmother who taught me wisdom, thank you for your kindness and love,
- to my extended family, cousins, and friends (Houria, Afaf, Wafa, Amina) who have always been caring,
- to my special friend and partner Asma who always finds the right things to say, for her care, love, guidance and support.
Nouha
A special thanks is also extended to our dear friends and colleagues for these years of friendship and for their moral support: Sofia, Manel, Amal, and Souad.
Acknowledgements
- There are many people whose generous assistance, guidance, and support made the completion of this work possible.
- First of all, we are deeply grateful to our supervisor MrsLoubnaKouira for her precious guidance, help, and wisdom, without whom this work could not be achieved.
- We would like to express our sincere thanks to all third year students who took part in this study for their cooperation and participation.
- We would like to thank all students and teachers at the department of English. This study would not have been possible without their assistance and participation.
- We would like to thank all the members of the board of examiners for reading our dissertation and providing us with valuable feedback.
Abstract
Listening is the most frequently used form of language skills; it plays a significant role in daily communication and educational process. In spite of its importance, listening has received only slight emphasis in language learning and teaching, and it was not until the 1960s that it began to be voiced. The actual purpose of this study was to examine the influence of students’ motivation on the development of their proficiency in listening comprehension. The study was conducted with third year students in the department of English at Mohamed Seddik Ben YahiaUniversity.The hypothesis set for this study was that motivation can lead to the development of students’ proficiency in listening comprehension. The data of this research were gathered through two questionnaires. The first one was administered to sixtythird year students at the department of English. The second
questionnaire was given to twelveoral expression teachers at the same department. After an attentive analysis and discussion it was confirmed that there is a positive correlation between the students’ motivation and the development of proficiency in listening comprehension.
List of Abbreviations and symbols
%: Percentage
CA: Comprehension Approach
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
EFL: English as a Foreign Language ELL: English Language Learning
ESL: English as a Second Language FLS: Foreign Language Students L2: Second Language
LTM: Long Term Memory STM: Short Term Memory
List of Tables
Table 1: The Challenges that Students Encounter in a Listening Activity………57
Table 2: Foreign Language Enjoyment………..64
Table 3: Interest in Foreign Languages………..…65
Table 4: English Language Learning Enjoyment………...……65
Table 5: The Ability to Listen to Foreign Languages………...….……66
Table 6: Importance of English in Getting a Job………66
Table 7: The Students’ Desire to Learn English……….…67
Table 8: English is Dull……….…..67
Table 9: The Importance of English Language inCommunication………....67
Table 10: Getting Nervous and Confused when Listening to English………68
Table 11: Importance of Studying English for Activity Participation………68
Table 12: English Preference………..………69
Table 13: Importance of English Knowledge……….……69
Table 14: The Embarrassment of Volunteering Answers………...……70
Table 15: The Respect Given to Knowledge of a Foreign Language……….……70
Table 16: Listening to the English Language……….…70
Table 18: The Enjoyment of Meeting and Listening to People who Speak Other
Languages...71
Table 19: Greatness of Learning English………...…72
Table 20: Studying a Foreign Language in School………72
Table 21: Hating English………72
Table 22: The Importance of English for the Future Career………...…73
Table 23: Self-confidence and Listening………73
Table 24: Learning English is a Waste of Time……….……73
Table 25: Paying Attention to Feedback……….…74
Table 26: The Anxiety in Answering Questions in an English Class………..…74
Table 27: The Excitement of Going to Class Because of the English Teacher…………...74
Table 28: Trying to Understand all the English I Hear………75
Table 29: The Problem in Understanding Something in English Class………...75
Table 30: Factors to Consider in Listening Passage Selection……….…82
List of Figures
Figure 01: The Process of Spoken Word Recognition in the Cohort Model…………...…12
Figure 02: The Structure of a Parse Tree………...…13
Figure 03: The Application of the Framework to a Song……….…18
Figure 04: Levels of Representation of a Simple Utterance………..…22
Figure 05: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs………..…35
Figure 06: ERG theory………...…37
Figure 07: The Equity Theory………...39
Figure 08: Students’ Level of English…………...……….……52
Figure 09: Studying English at University……….……52
Figure 10: The Difficulty of a Listening Task………53
Figure 11: The Listening Skill Compared to Other Skills………..54
Figure 12: The Opinion of Students about the Listening Activities………...……55
Figure 13: Students’ Frequency of Practicing the Listening Skill………..55
Figure 14: The Students’ Opinion about Equalizing the Four Skills ……..………56
Figure 15: Listening Practice Support………....………58
Figure 16: The Students’ Level in Understanding a Listening Passage……….……59
Figure 17: Types of Listening………59
Figure 19: Improvement of Proficiency in Listening Comprehension ………..……61
Figure 20: Students’ Frequency of Listening to Authentic Material.……….……62
Figure 21: Difficulty of Authentic Materials………62
Figure 22: Authentic Listening Materials and the Proficiency in Listening Comprehension...63
Figure 23: The Degree of Importance of the Four Language Skills ………78
Figure 24: The Development of the Listening Skill along with other Skills ………..…79
Figure 25: Difficulty to Teach Listening………..…80
Figure 26: Listening Level of the Students ……….……81
Figure 27: Teacher’s Frequency of Using Listening Tasks………..……82
Figure 28: Importance of Listening Types………...………83
Figure 29: Teacher’s Frequency of Using Authentic Materials………...………84
Figure 30: Benefit of Using Authentic Materials………..…85
Figure 31: Listening Lesson Plan Format……….……86
Figure 32: Teaching Listening Approaches………..………87
Figure 33: Students’ Motivation to Learn Listening Comprehension……….88
Figure 34: The Importance of Motivation in Developing Students’ Proficiency in Listening Comprehension………89
Figure 35: Teacher’s Role in Motivating Students……….…………90
Table of Contents
Dedication………I Acknowledgments………...…..III Abstract………...…..…IV List of Abbreviations………....….V List of Tables………...……….VIList of Figures………..……..VIII
General Introduction...1
1. Statement of the Problem………..………..……….…1
2. Aims of the Research ……….……….2
3. Research Questions………..2
4. Hypothesis………2
5. Research Procedure………..…2
6. The Structure of the Research………..………3
Chapter One: ListeningComprehension
……….…..4
Introduction………...4 1.1. Definition of Listening………...…....4 1.2. Types of Listening ………...6 1.2.1. Intensive Listening………...6 1.2.2. Extensive Listening ………...7 1.2.3. Bottom-up Listening………..…7
1.2.4. Top-down Listening……….8
1.3. Characteristics of the Variables in Listening Issues………9
1.3.1. Memory………9
1.3.2. Concentration…………...………9
1.3.3. Vocabulary………..10
1.4. Listening Comprehension Process……….10
1.5. The Constituent Elements of Listening Comprehension………11
1.5.1. Speech Perception………...11
1.5.2. Recognizing Spoken Words ………..11
1.5.3. Parsing-Understanding of the Syntactic Structures of Sentences…………..12
1.6. Factors Influencing Listening Comprehension……….13
1.6.1. Topic……….13
1.6.2. Content……….……….14
1.6.3. Self-Concept……….………14
1.6.4. Physical and Psychological States………15
1.7. Teaching Listening…...………15
1.7.1. Listening Lesson Format……….………..15
1.7.2. Approaches of Listening Comprehension……….18
1.7.2.1. The Comprehension Approach……….……….18
1.7.2.1.1. Advantages of the Comprehension Approach………...19
1.7.2.2. The Process Approach….………..21
1.8. Authentic Listening Materials……..………22
1.8.1. Definition of Authentic Materials……….22
1.8.2. Advantages of Using Authentic Materials………23
1.8.3. Factors to Consider when Selecting Listening Materials…….……….25
Conclusion……….………..26
Chapter Two: Motivation
……….………...………..27
Introduction……….………...….………27
2.1. Definition of Motivation……….……….27
2.2. Historical Overview of Motivation……….….…29
2.3. Types of Motivation……….………30
2.3.1. Integrative and Instrumental Motivation…….………30
2.3.2. Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation...………31
2.4. The Importance of Motivation……….32
2.5. Theories of Motivation………33
2.5.1. Expectancy-Value Theory………33
2.5.2. Hierarchy of Needs Theory………..35
2.5.4. Theory X and Theory Y………...………38
2.5.5. Equity Theory………...………39
2.5.6. Achievement Motivation Theory…...………..40
2.5.7. Self-Determination Theory………...………41
2.5.8. Goal-Setting Theory……….43
2.5.9. Self-Efficacy Theory………44
2.5.10. Two-Factor Theory……….………45
2.6. Factors Affecting Motivation ……….46
2.6.1. Anxiety……….46 2.6.2. Attitude……….………47 2.6.3. Emotions………...47 2.7. Sources of Motivation……….………48 2.7.1. Society………..48 2.7.2. Significant Other………..48 2.7.3. Teacher……….49 2.7.4. Method……….49 Conclusion………….………...…….49
ChapterThree: The Field of Investigation
………..………...50
Introduction………...………….50
3.1. The Student’s Questionnaire………...…………50
3.1.1. The Aim of the Questionnaire………...………...………50
3.1.2. Administration of the Questionnaire………50
3.1.3. Description of the Questionnaire ……….51
3.1.4. Analysis of the Results ………...……….51
3.1.4.1. Section One: Background Information………...……51
3.1.4.2. Section Two: Listening Comprehension………53
3.1.4.2.1. Discussion of the Analysis of the Results ………..….64
3.1.4.3. Section Three: Motivation………..64
3.1.4.3.1. Discussion of the Analysis of the Scale …………...76
3.2. The Teacher’s Questionnaire………...………...76
3.2.1. Administration of the Questionnaire ………76
3.2.2. Description of the Questionnaire…………....………..77
3.2.3. Analysis of the Results……….77
3.2.3.1. Section One: Background Information……...………...…77
3.2.3.2. Section Two: Listening Comprehension………78
3.2.3.3. Section Three: Motivation and Listening Comprehension...….88
3.3. Discussion of the Results ……….………...92
Conclusion ……….93
General Conclusion………...….95
Limitations of the Study……….96
Pedagogical Recommendations…..………...……97
General Introduction
1. Statement of the Problem
In the past, listening in English as a foreign language (EFL) context was less important than the other skills, and it was neglected for so many years. Arguments for listening comprehension began to be voiced in the mid-1960s by Rivers. This was an introduction that attracted the attention of other researchers, among them Krashen in 1980 with his input hypothesis which emphasizes the importance of listening comprehension. Other researcherswhohave contributed to the development of this field are Mendelsohn in 1984 who argued that comprehension skills will be improved through experience, Nunan (1997) described listening as the Cinderella skill which is overlooked by the other language skills, Call (1985) established a relationship between short-term memory and listening comprehension, and Morely (1991) emphasized the importance of listening by saying that we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak.
Other Algerian researchers as well were much concerned with this issue like Khanchali Mohammed 2005 who tried to describe a frame work for listening in his Magister dissertation and also Dr Azeddine Boulfelfel,in his Doctorat dissertation, found that some aspects of listening and motivation can be paired up.
Nowadays, researchers have come to the conclusion that language begins with the ear and that without listening, communication cannot be achieved. Listening, therefore, should be the core of language learning. Moreover, listening is one of the hardest skills to learn, it is where the student needs to be fully focused and motivated. From our experience, as foreign language students, acquiring the listening skill becomes extremely difficult when there is a lack of motivation which can be presented through poor attendance, low class participation, and poor student teacher relationship.
2. Aims of the Research
The present study investigates and analyzes motivation as an important tool for students to develop their proficiency in listening comprehension. Another aim is to highlight the problems that the students encounter in the acquisition of the listening skills.
3. Research Questions
1. What are the challenges facing EFL students in developing their listening comprehension skills?
2. How listening materials can develop students‟ proficiency in listening comprehension? 3. Does motivation have a role in developing students‟ listening comprehension?
4. Hypothesis
In this study it can be hypothesized that students‟ listening abilities can be developed if motivation is present.
5. Research Procedure
In this research, a questionnaire issubmitted to sixty (60) third year students at the department of English at Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia. Another questionnaire is administered to twelve (12) oral expression teachers at the same university. The results of both questionnaires arethen analyzed and discussed.
6. The Structure of the Research:
This research is divided into two main sections. The first section is the theoretical part which is going to deal with the literature review and it is divided into two chapters. The first chapter is going to be about listening comprehension including its definition, its different types, its characteristics and constituent elements, the teaching of listening, and the authentic listening materials. The second chapter is going to talk about motivation; its definition, its historical background, its theories, as well as the factors affecting motivation.
The second section is devoted to the practical part, and it is concerned with the investigation, analysis, and discussion of the results obtained from the questionnaires.
Chapter one
Listening Comprehension
Introduction
Listening comprehension has long been “somewhat neglected and poorly taught aspect of English in many EFL programs” (Mendelsohn, 1994, as cited in Hamouda, 2013, p. 114). However, with the growing demands for communication in everyday life, listening comprehension is now given a special attention, and it is rather more important than any other language skill. Listening comprehension is a necessary skill in maintaining relationships with others; like family, friends, colleagues, or other people in life.
Listening is considered the first form of language that a child acquires, it provides the foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development, and it plays a life-long role in the process of communication. Moreover, in the field of language learning and teaching, it is essential for language teachers to help their studentsto become effective listeners through providing them with appropriate materials that can be used both inside and outside the classroom.
1.1. Definition of Listening
At the beginning of English language teaching, listening was a means used to introduce new grammar items to students. It was not until the 1970s, with the emergence of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), that listening began to be taught as a skill on its own (Field,2009).
Listening has been defined by several researchers. Howatt and Dakin(1974) view listening as the listeners‟ ability to comprehend what the speaker is saying and what is his/her meaning, taking into consideration the accent as well as vocabulary and grammar
(as cited in Malkawi, 2010). O‟Malley,Chamot and Kupper (1987) defined listening comprehension as a process where the listener should be active and aware in order to understand the hints from the contextual and world knowledge, while he/she uses different strategies to achieve the required task . West and Turner (2009) said that listening is an active and two way street process; needing both the listener and speaker. This process goes through four components:accepting the message of the speaker, withdrawing his/her words, evaluating what he/she said, and then saying something in return. In listening, we need to understand the message of the other person in the communication (p.187). Anderson and Lynch (1988), arguing about what is successful listening, stated that “understanding is not something that happens because of what a speaker says:the listener has a crucial part to play in the process, by activating various types of knowledge, and by applying what he knows to what he hears and trying to understand what the speaker means” (p. 6). The student has to apply his background knowledge in order to understand the underlying meaning of the speaker.
According to Nunan (1998) listening is also the process in which the listener decodes and builds meaning from verbal and nonverbal messages (p. 1). Underwood defines it as “The activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning from something we hear” (As cited in Gilakjani& Ahmadi, 2011, p.978).
Furthermore Purdy (1991) defined listening in a more detailed way as an active process rather than a passive one, this process involves attending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering, and responding to what other human beings are expressing. “Listening is one distinguished process where a fixed meaning is cognitively constructed prior to the delivery of the receiver” (Adalmann, 2012, p.516).
Listening is the interpretative action taken by the listener in order to understand and potentially make meaning out of the sound waves. Listening can be understood on three levels: alerting, deciphering, and an understanding of how the sound is produced and how the sound affects the listener (Wikipedia).
Therefore, listening is the first step that can be taken in a conversation.
1.2. Types of Listening
Researchers have categorized listening in different types, here four of them are discussed.
1.2.1. Intensive Listening
Intensive listening is a skill widely used in modern classrooms. In a listening comprehension classroom students are presented with a passage to listen to, and asked to use intensive listening skills; meaning that they have to analyse the passage, and look for certain information which are asked by the teacher, to answer the designed questions(Harmer, 2001, p. 228). “Intensive listening refers to listening for precise sounds, words, phrases, grammatical units, and pragmatic units” (Rost, 2011, p.138) it requires from students to listen carefully and pay attention to every detail in the passage be it in grammar, pragmatics, or syntax. Students have to go through the passage several times as it is difficult for them to understand it from the first time, they are required to grasp the meaning of the passage in detail and that is by understanding each word and sentence. In order to do so students have to break down the passage into parts (Ahmadi, Gilakjani, 2011, p. 983). According to Rost (2011) dictation is considered the most used activity in intensive listening.
1.2.2. Extensive Listening
Contrary to intensive listening students are given the freedom to select the materials they listen to. Extensive listening takes place outside the classroom in a relaxed mood where the materials are songs, movies, and dramas (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012, p. 199). Extensive listening requires students to understand the general meaning of the passage and understand the content. According to Harmer (2001):
Extensive listening will usually take place outside the classroom, in the learners‟ home, car or personal stereos as they travel from one place to another. The motivational power of such activity increases dramatically when learners make their own choices about what they are going to listen to (p.229).
Extensive listening is not used exclusively for educational purposes rather it is used for pleasure; it is where you are free to choose what you are going to listen to and thus your motivation increases. The purpose of extensive listening is to enhance the listening ability; while for intensive listening it is to build basic listening ability (Ahmadi, Gilakjani, 2011).
1.2.3. Bottom-up Listening
The bottom-up listening process involves constructing meaning from the smallest unit of the spoken language to the largest one in a linear mode (Nunan, 1998). This process deals with the message itself. The listener starts by building up the meaning of oral texts by decoding sounds, words, phrases, and then sentences relying on grammatical relationships as well as stress and intonation. The bottom-up process “sees language comprehension as a process of passing through a number of consecutive stages, or levels, and the output of
each stage becomes the input for the next higher stage. It is, as it were, a one-way street” (Buck, 2001, p.5). In addition, bottom-up activities focus on listening for details and involve tasks that focus on understanding at a sound or word level. Flowerdew and Miller (2005) summarized the bottom-up process as follow:
Listeners build understanding by starting with the smallest units of the acoustic message: individual sounds, or phonemes. These are then combined into words, which, in turn, together make up phrases, clauses, and sentences. Finally, individual sentences combine to create ideas and concepts and relationships between them (p. 24).
1.2.4. Top-down Listening
Top-down listening process refers to the interpretation of meaning as intended by the speakers by means of schemata or structures of knowledge in the listener‟s mind (Nunan, 1998). This view highlights the importance of background knowledge that is already possessed by students in making sense of the information they hear. The listener can recognize the language words or sounds using his/her own background knowledge to predict the content. According to Flowerdew and Miller (2005) “Top-down models emphasize the use of previous knowledge in processing a text rather than relying upon the individual sounds and words” (p.25).
Top-down process relies on students knowing something about the topic, knowing the situational language common to certain exchanges, or knowing what expressions of language fit a particular topic or situation. Top-down activities focus on the big picture and general meaning of a listening text.
1.3. Characteristics of the Variables in Listening Issues
The variables in listening issues do have three characteristics as follow:
1.3.1. Memory
Memory has an important role in listening comprehension. According to Byrnes (1984) listening comprehension is divided into sub-skills, Rivers (1971) describes two of those sub-skills as consisting of the recognition of linguistic elements and the memory of those elements when they have been recognised (as cited in Call, 1985).
Memory is divided into two types, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). STM plays an important role in listening comprehension. “It is the part of the memory in which information are stored and analysed for a short time”(Richards& Schmidt, 2010, p.359),In order for the information to remain longer,good listening skills are required from the students (Xu, 2008, p.103). After that, the information will go to the LTM once it is understood (Richards, Platt & Platt, 2000, as cited in Xu, 2008).
1.3.2. Concentration
Concentration is highly important in listening comprehension. It is the students‟ ability to pay attention to what is said. Concentration can be challenging for EFL students as it demands effort from their part to stay focused on a listening task due to the lack of curiosity and time constraints (Bingol, Celik, Yildiz, & Mart, 2014).
First,students tend to get bored when exposed to a listening task that is not of their interest. It would be easier to concentrate on listening comprehension when the topic is interesting. Underwood (1989) said that “If students find the topic interesting they will find concentration easier” (as cited in, Osada, 2004, p.63).
Second, time constraints in a language classroom. EFLstudents when faced with a listening task, generally have the habit of trying to understand every word they hear and thus tend to forget to pay attention to what comes next and lose concentration (Underwood, 1989, as cited in Osada, 2004). Students focus too much on understanding every detail of the passage and that consumes time; and as the time allocated for one lesson is short the students will not be able to concentrate on the most important part of the task.
1.3.3. Vocabulary
EFL students, generally have a limited vocabulary, thus they are bound to face difficulties in understanding each word from the listening task, especially if the speaker‟s words are unknown for the listener, this leads the students to stop at each word and try to understand its meaning. Stopping at each word may lead students to fail in understanding all the words which leads to a sense of failure. Thus, in order for the students to enrich their vocabulary they need to tolerate vagueness and incompleteness of understanding (Underwood, 1989, as cited in, Osada, 2004).
1.4. ListeningComprehensionProcess
Listening comprehension process is said to be a complex and a difficult process for foreign languagestudents (FLS). It refers to a process of input interpretation in terms of background knowledge of the listener; the listener tries to identify what he/she knows and what he/she does not know. It also refers to the use of signals in interpretation (Rubin, 1994). According to Flowerdew (1994), listening comprehension process involves five types of knowledge: pragmatic, semantic, syntactic, lexical and phonological knowledge. Scholars viewed the listening comprehension process as a bottom-up process which, after few years, changed to be a top-down process. Nowadays scholars have come to the
conclusion that listening comprehension process revolves around a variety of processes that interact with each other (Flowerdew, 1994).
1.5. The Constituent Elements of Listening Comprehension
1.5.1. Speech Perception
Speech perception is the process by which the sounds of language are heard, organized, identified, interpreted, and understood. Speech perception is related to phonology and phonetics in linguistics and perception in psychology (Wikipedia. n.d.). It was described by Houston (2012) “as a mode of hearing specialized for speech”.
The process of perceiving speech begins at the level of the sound signal and the audition. After processing the initial auditory signal, speech sounds are further processed to extract acoustic cues and phonetic information (The cues differentiate speech sounds belonging to different phonetic categories) (Wikipedia, n.d.). This speech information can then be used for higher level language process; such as word recognition.
1.5.2. Recognizing Spoken Words
Recognizing spoken words is the outcome of speech perception and it requires listeners to solve several perceptual challenges. Unlike written words or other visual objects, the components of spoken words cannot be simultaneously presented; they do not last long, and so cannot be reexamined after their first presentation (Psychology of language, 2007).
Spoken word recognition was described in the Cohort Model proposed by Marslen-Wilson in the 1980s. This model suggests that we handle spoken word recognition by using the initial phoneme to activate the set of all words in the lexicon that have the same
phoneme. Then as more information is received, we narrow the set down. The set of the activated words is called a „cohort‟. Therefore, recognition occurs when only one item remains in the cohort (Dahan& Magnuson, 2006). This process is illustrated in the diagram below:
Figure 01: The Process of Spoken Word Recognition in the Cohort Model (Source: Psychology of language, 2007)
1.5.3. Parsing-understanding of the Syntactic Structures of Sentences
After the individual words have been recognized, two types of information become available, the meaning of the sentence and its syntax.
Parsing or syntactic analysis is the process of dividing a sentence into parts of speech and describing the grammar of each part. The term parsing itself, which comes from Latin, means part of speech (Koopman, Sportiche, & Stabler, 2014).The most frequent syntactic structure method used is the “parse tree”. This parse tree conveys two types of information:
the part of speech for each word and the phrases (Wikipedia, n.d.). The tree can be clarified by the following example:
S
Figure 02: The Structure of a Parse Tree.
1.6. Factors Influencing Listening Comprehension
1.6.1. Topic
To grab the attention of the audience, one needs to pick a topic that is sure to make them focus on what they are listening. Listening comprehension can be improved ifstudents are interested in the topic. Having interests makes the listening comprehension easy and even enjoyable. In both intensive and extensive listening,students always tend to listen to a topic that triggers their attention, makes them feel motivated, and increase their
NP VP
D N V NP
D N The childate
understanding level. Every person has his/her own preferences and favorite topics; some might like a topic discussing the current political events while others prefer the latest movies hitting the box office.
1.6.2. Content
Students‟ background knowledge can highly contribute to successful comprehension. “It plays an important role in listening. Prior knowledge is organized in the form of schemata (networks of abstract mental structures) that listeners use as a conceptual framework to fill in missing information as they listen” (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012, p.65). In addition, without knowing something about the content of the listening text, listeners will lose interest and comprehension becomes difficult. For example, when you discuss the Mesozoic Era, a student with poor listening comprehension may tune out, having no connection to the vocabulary. As you begin to discuss the Jurassic period and mention dinosaurs, however, the student may become enthusiastic as he/she begins to construct meaning based on background knowledge he/she has gained from books or movies about dinosaurs (Norfleet, n.d.).
1.6.3. Self-concept
The view of thestudent‟s own self plays a major role in improving one‟s listening comprehension. If astudent has confidence in his/her mental abilities to understand a listening text, he/she is already half-way through comprehending it or, at least, most of it. “Listeners with high self-efficacy feel confident about their ability to handle listening situations because they have learned to manage these challenges, based on past experience” (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012, p. 71).
However, if the student suffers a lack of self-concept and assurance, his/her mind is predisposed to not understand; it renders thestudent unable to receive the information fully and properly; which may, in turn, lower his/her listening capabilities.
1.6.4. Physical and Psychological State
A physical and psychological state is an important factor to achieve good listening comprehension. Generally, to be a good listener you should not only be physically in a good condition, but also psychologically. Headaches, fatigue, anxiety, and pressure can influence thestudents‟ listening ability. “These emotionally relevant learner characteristics will shape how listeners respond to a listening task and thereby influence the outcome and listening success” (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012, p. 70).
1.7. Teaching Listening
Teaching listening comprehension is, nowadays, gaining greater importance in foreign language classrooms, and it has undergone several changes ever since it was acknowledged as a school subject. Those changes were in terms of its lesson format and its approaches (Field, 2009).
1.7.1. Listening Lesson Format
The basic framework, on which a listening lesson is constructed, can be divided into three stages:
1.7.1.1. Pre-listening
The aim of pre-listening activities is to prepare students for listening, to get them excited about it, and to motivate them (Sahr, 2011). Looking for pictures or maps is an
example of a pre-listening activity. According to Field (2009), during pre-listening the teacher may:
- Check the students‟ background knowledge of the topic.
- Provide students with the necessary knowledge for their comprehension of the listening passage.
- Clarify any information that might be important to understand the passage.
- Create a motivating atmosphere.
1.7.1.2. While-listening
While-listening activities are what students are asked to do during the time they are listening to the passage. Students need to be allowed to listen to the passage three or four times for them to understand it and to be able to answer the required activity. It is important for students to have a break between listenings in order to give them a chance to check their understanding and their answers. While listening, the student might listen for the main idea first in order to get the general picture of the passage then, listen for details and specific information (Sahr, 2011).
1.7.1.3. Post-listening
After listening, comprehension may be evaluated through a certain activity in order to check if students understood the passage and if they can use what they listened in the future (Field, 2009). A post-listening activity represents a follow-up to the while-listening activity.
For example, if the students have listened to a TV program presenting a certain point of view about health care, we ask the students, as a post-listening activity, to discuss the
views expressed in the listening passage (Sahr, 2011). There are two common forms that post-listening activities can take. These are reactions to the content of the text, and analysis of the linguistic features used to express the content (Teaching English, 2010).
- Reaction to the text: the focus on students‟ reaction to the content is very important. Because students listen for a reason, there is generally a following reaction. The reaction could be in a form of a discussion as a response to what they have heard (do they agree or disagree) or it could be some kind of a reuse of the information they have heard.
- Analysis of language: the second of these two post-listening activity types involves students focusing on the linguistic features of the text. This is important in terms of developing their knowledge of language. It could take, for example, the form of an analysis of verb forms from a part of the listening text. This is a good activity since the students have already developed an understanding of the text and, therefore, will find dealing with these verb forms much easier (Teaching English, 2010).
- Here is an example of how we could use this framework (pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening) to exploit a song:
Figure 03: The Application of the framework to a song (Source: Teaching English, 2010)
1.7.2. Approaches of Listening Comprehension
1.7.2.1. The Comprehension Approach
The comprehension approach is used in listening comprehension to test thestudents‟ comprehension by following certain steps; the teacher starts off by preparing thestudents before the listening takes place, he/she motivates the students and prepares them mentally to listen. The second step the teacher follows is extensive listening;students are asked to listen to the passage and answer some general questions about it, after comes the pre-set tasks or questions followed by intensive listening. The comprehension approach revolves around a recorded passage of three minutes long presented tostudents. Their understanding of this passage is then checked through a comprehension task. If the answer is correct, the teacher knows that thestudent has understood the passage. However, if the answer is wrong, the difficult part is then replayed. “The presentation can be made more
learner-friendly by playing the recording in short sections; similarly, the comprehension exercise might take the form of the task rather than a set of questions” (Field, 2009, p.26).
1.7.2.1.1. Advantages of the Comprehension Approach:
The comprehension approach owns some advantages and Field (2009) discussed two of them in his book.
1.7.2.1.1.1. Exposure and experience: Thestudents are constantly exposed to the foreign language as used by its native speakers, and gain experience from the repetition of the listening tasks if they failed to understand them. Exposure and experience are considered important in the development of thestudents‟ listening skills, as thestudents will develop the ability to figure out ways to deal with listening task, because they are used to making mistakes and forming hypotheses from the previous ones.
1.7.2.1.1.2. The ability to pass exams: Methods and principles of the comprehension approach are used in international exams due to the questions‟ easiness to score, thus the use of comprehension approach in listening classes will make it easier for the students to pass the exams and succeed in them, which is the teacher‟s long term goal.
1.7.2.1.2. Disadvantages of the Comprehension Approach
It is argued that the comprehension approach is not suitable to be used in teaching listening comprehension due to its misleading nature, that thestudents‟ listening problems are handled which is not the case; thus Field (2009) gave a number of disadvantages of using the comprehension approach:
1.7.2.1.2.1. Reading versus listening: listening is considered a new skill compared to the other skills. It was originated from the teaching of reading. They are similar in terms of checking the understanding in both skills. However, they are quite different. The first
difference can be shown in the materials used, where the ones of reading are easier to handle comparing to the listening ones. The second difference “lies in how permanent the text is” (p.27) while reading, the reader has the text in hand, in a paper and thus has the chance to go back to the text whenever he/she wants to check his/her understanding; however while listening, the listener does not have the opportunity to check his/her understanding because the information will be lost as time passes.
1.7.2.1.2.2. More practice versus better listening:The comprehension approach gives more importance to listening experience, its main concern is how much students will practice their listening rather than giving importance to what is being listened to; it is based on the idea that the more listening occurs the more students will develop their listening. It was criticized because the objectives of the listening lesson are not clear, and it fails to consider whether the methodology used is the best way to accomplish these objectives.
1.7.2.1.2.3. Answering questions versus showing understanding: In the comprehension approach the criteria of success in understanding the listening task depend upon the answers provided by thestudents. According to Field (2009), correct answers show that the students acquired a good level in listening competence, while wrong ones prove that they failed to achieve what was expected from them. “Here, the gross assumption is that right answers demonstrate a high level of listening competence, while wrong answers or silence show that the learners fall short of what was expected” (p.30). However, this is not always true. Some students may succeed in a listening task while they have not fully understood the ideas and intentions of the speaker.
1.7.2.1.2.4. Comprehension approach (CA) versus CLT: Another weakness of CA is that it has a teacher-centered methodology,students usually feel isolated inside the classroom.
“The atmosphere in a listening class often approximates more closely to that of an exam center than to that of a forum of communication practice of the second language” (p.31).
1.7.2.1.2.5. Classroom versus outside world: One more weakness of the CA is that it does not make a connection between the classroom activities and the type of listening the students are exposed to in the real world, for example giving pre-set questions to the students before the listening occurs in the classroom does not correspond to what happens in real life where the listening happens without any prior preparation (p.31).
1.7.2.2. The process Approach:
The process approach is an approach used to determine sub-skills and processes used in students‟ listening and their mastery of those sub-skills. This approach has as a principle the division of “a macro-skill into its component parts” (Field, 2009, p.110). The focus of this approach is to fit the aims of the second language (L2) skills training with the processes (sub-skills) that lie under the performance of the native language. “These processes have been acquired as a result of many years‟ experience of using the target language” (Field, 2009, p.111).
This proposal of splitting listening into parts makes a difference between the processes linked with speech signal (decoding), which are made to construct meaning. “Decoding turns the acoustic input that the listener receives into what we think of as the standard forms of language” (Field, 2009, p.113). The figure below illustrates some processes that an L2 listener needs to master:
Figure 04: Levels of Representation of a Simple Utterance (Source: Field, 2009, p.114)
1.8. Authentic Listening Materials
1.8.1.Definition of AuthenticMaterials
There are various definitions of authentic materials in the literature. Morrow (1977) defines authentic materials as the kind of language used by native speakers for a real audience to express a message (as cited in, Pinner, 2013, p.46). Nunan in his definition gave the purpose of the use of authentic materials, according to him authentic materials are not designed for teaching purposes (Nunan, 1988, as cited in Shomoossi&Ketabi, 2007).
Rogers and Medley (1988) used the term authentic to refer to “language samples…that reflect a naturalness of form and an appropriateness of cultural and situation context that would be found in the language used by native speakers” (p. 468).
Authentic materials are not used in language classrooms as they are designed by native speakers for native speakers. They consist of magazines, newspapers, advertisements, news reports, or songs. These materials contain natural language as used by natives in their natural environment; unlike the language used in textbooks which is considered as non-realistic and which is designed only to be used in education; therefore it cannot be used in real life situations (Richards & Schmidt, 2010).
There are three main categories of authentic materials: print, auditory, and audio-visual. In this paper we are going to discuss only the two later as they are the categories used in the listening task. In a listening lesson, EFL students are given authentic listening passages, which contain real life language as it is used to communicate between native speakers.
1.8.2.Advantages of UsingAuthenticMaterials
According to different researchers, authentic materials are not designed to be used for teaching purposes and thus cannot be applied in classrooms as teaching activities. During the 1970s the importance of authentic materials arose with the emergence of CLT. One major change brought by CLT is that English is no longer viewed as just a school subject, but rather a tool for communication (Freeman, 2000, p.129).
Researchers as well as teachers started to view authentic materials as advantageous and can developstudents‟ listening comprehension. According to Rogers and Medley
(1988) students must be exposed to language as it is used in real life in order to develop proficiency in the foreign language.
Authentic materials do not only enhance language proficiency, but they have several advantages; they have a positive effect on motivating students as well as increasing their listening comprehension. According to Guariento and Morely (2001), authentic videos increasestudents‟ motivation since they make them feel that they are learning the real language, and that they are in touch with the target language as it is used by its community, which speaks it. Since authentic materials include real life language, they raisestudents‟ interest and makes them pay attention to how the language is used by its speakers.
In their study Herron and Seay (1991) found out that, thosestudents, who listened to radio tapes as classroom activity, had greater listening comprehension than those who were not exposed to that kind of activity. Listening comprehension increased with more exposure to authentic listening materials (as cited in Omid& Azam, 2016).
Otte (2006) investigated the importance of aural authentic texts on listening comprehension abilities of four adult English as a second language (ESL) students at an American university, he concluded that exposure to authentic materials improvestudents‟ abilities and motivation (as cited in Sabet& Mahsefat, 2012).
To sum up, the advantages of the use of authentic materials are as follow:
-Motivating students to develop their abilities in listening comprehension. -Arousing thestudents‟ interest about the foreign language learning. -Exposing the students to real language as used in the real world.
1.8.3. Factors to Consider when Selecting Listening Materials
The aim of using authentic listening materials is to acquaintance thestudents with the real English language as used outside the classroom. The teacher is the one responsible for selecting materials that help students achieve that aim. In order to do so he/she must take into consideration some factors.
1.8.3.1.Select Materials Appropriate forStudents
’Level
It is evident that authentic listening materials are beneficial to developstudents‟ listening abilities; the question now is how they will be used. The teacher must bear in mind thestudents‟ level. According to Guariento and Morley (2001) at post-intermediate level, it is possible to select authentic materials that will help students in both skills development and the range of new language. However according toSpelleri (2002) “The level of language complexity must be just slightly beyond the learners‟ current ability” (as cited in Baghban&Pandian, 2001, p.9), at lower level materials should be selected carefully, they must be simple tasks that contain familiar content to thestudents, and the content should be attainable and matches thestudents‟ level; it should not be too easy nor too difficult.
1.8.3.2. Make Materials Relevant to Students
When selecting listening materials the teacher must choose materials that are relevant to thestudents‟ life. In order to do so, he/she should be aware ofstudents‟ interests, their weaknesses, and strengths by conducting a needs assessment test which is a test used to identifystudents‟ needs, interests, and knowledge. For example, to makestudents listen to a radio about a topic that is not interesting for them, they are likely to be discouraged, and will not try to understand the content nor to pay attention to the vocabulary (Ross, 2007).
1.8.3.3. Cultural Appropriateness
One more point to consider in the selection of listening materials is their cultural appropriateness. What we call a cultural appropriate topic, is a topic that takes into consideration thestudents‟ values, beliefs, and family norms. This aspect should be used in the selection of the listening materials. It is usually mistaken that language learning activities are the ones that cause confusion, displeasure, and offense forstudents; but in reality it is the topics of listening materials (Mann & Copland, 2015). The content of these materials should not offend thestudents‟ religion, political orientation, or culture. For example, topics such as; insulting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the claim that Islam is related to terrorism, and the campaign against the Hijab, can be offensive for Muslimstudents (El-Osery, n.d.).
Conclusion
To sum up what has been said above, listening has moved from being a neglected skill to an important one. Moreover, it has been established that listening is a basic language skill prior to the other skills of language. This chapter discussed listening comprehension in foreign language learning and teaching starting with the definitions of listening, its various types, the characteristics and constituent elements of listening comprehension, and the factors that influence listening. The chapter also dealt with the authentic materials that are used in teaching listening.
Chapter Two
Motivation
Introduction
Motivation has long been identified as one of the main factors affecting English language learning (ELL) (Gardner, 1985). Motivation can be applied in almost any aspect of life. It is present if you want to study, to get a better job, to write, to workout, etc.
“It is accepted for most fields of learning that motivation is essential to success: that we have to want to do something to succeed at it. Without such motivation we will almost certainly fail to make the necessary effort” (Harmer, 2001, p.51). Therefore, motivation is a key element to determine success or failure in learning.
2.1. Definition of Motivation
Motivation has numerous and diverse meanings.“The word motivation derives from the Latin word movere meaning to move” (Dornyei & Ushioda, 2011, p.3).
Motivation is the inspiration that leads someone and urges him/her to reach his/her aim and perform or behave in a certain way. A motivated person always tries his/her best to be successful in performing the acquired tasks (Bauer & Erdogan, 2012, p.182).Richards and Schmidt (2010, p.377) said that:
Motivation is the driving force in any situation that leads to action. In the field of language learning a distinction is sometimes made between an orientation, a class of reasons for learning a language, and motivation itself, which refers to a combination of the learner‟s attitudes, desires, and willingness to expend effort in order to learn the second language.
Moreover, it was defined by Harmer as an “internal drive” that forces somebody to reach a particular objective (2001, p.51). Similarly, Sasson (n.d.) identified motivation as the internal energy that pushes one towards performing a certain action. Motivation becomes powerful with the presence of determination and ambition. As a consequence, if they are present, motivation is present as well. Motivation strengthens the ambition, increases initiative, and gives direction, courage, energy, and persistence to follow one‟s goals. Motivation is usually strong when one has a bright inner picture of what he/she wants, and faith in his/her own abilities. In this case, motivation pushes one forward to take action in making his/her desires a reality.
Another outstanding definition was provided by Dornyei, “motivation is an abstract, hypothetical concept that we use to explain why people think and behave as they do” (2001, p.1). This concept of motivation influences people‟s behavior, way of thinking and gives them a purpose to achieve their aims. Finally, Santrock summarized motivation as “the process that energizes, directs and sustains behaviour” (2011, p.438). When motivation is involved, students always try to encounter challenges and overcome hardships.
2.2. A Historical Overview of Motivation
The concept of motivation can be traced back to ancient Greeks, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle ages. “The ancient Greeks presumed three components, the body desire, pleasures and pains (senses and efforts of will and spirit) in a hierarchical arrangement for the first theoretical justification of the motivational activities” (Pakdel, 2013, p.240).
Historically, theories of motivation viewed humans as passive and driven by their internal desires. However, by the 1960s, and with the emergence of the cognitive concept, theories started to view humans as active and moved by their goals, choices, interests, and values which play an important role in understanding behaviour. Research on motivation has recognized early that motivation can lead humans to behave in a certain way (Gollwitzer & Oettingen, 2001, p.10109). According to Dornyei, past motivation theories have been shaped to answer three questions, why people decide to do something, how hard they are going to pursue it, and how long they are willing to maintain the activity (2001, p.7).
The frequent and great changes introduced to the field of foreign language learning and teaching suggest that motivation is considered an important factor in improving the acquisition of foreign languages. Throughout the last 60 years there have been three major stages of motivational research. Dornyei (2009) categorized them in three periods:
2.2.1. The Social Psychological Period (1959-1990)
Motivation research was inspired by the social psychologist Robert Gardner in Canada. His main interest in motivation was the fact that the motivation to learn the other community‟s language might be the key to make peace between the Francophone and Anglophone communities. Language learning is motivated by the students‟ positive attitudes
towards the linguistic cultural community of the target language. In this period, the idea of integrative and instrumental motivation was labeled.
2.2.2. The Cognitive-Situated Period (during the 1990s)
The 1990s brought about a general dissatisfaction with the scope of Gardner‟s theory. L2 motivation research became increasingly education friendly, focusing on motives associated with classroom learning, and it also adopted a situated approach, focusing on the main components of the learning situation (such as the teacher, the curriculum, and the students). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were introduced in this period.
2.2.3. New Approaches (past decade)
In this period the concept of motivation and identity and the relationship between them was examined. Dornyei has proposed a new approach to the understanding of L2 motivation which includes an “L2 Motivational Self System” that aims to make a relation between a number of influential L2 theories and the findings of self-research in psychology.
2.3. Types of Motivation
The first two types of motivation that are going to be discussed here were firstintroduced by Gardner and Lambert in 1952; they are integrative and instrumental motivation. The work of Gardner and Lambert gave the starting point for further research that led to the emergence of the latter two types of motivation in this paper: Extrinsic and Intrinsic motivation.
2.3.1. Integrative and Instrumental Motivation
Gardner and Lambert (1972) defined integrative motivation as the type of motivation that happens when the student views the target language society and its members from a
positive perspective, and from having an interest in that society to the extent of willing to integrate in it and interact with its members. Gardner (1982) believes that interactively motivated students are active and more successful in FLL because they have a strong desire to be part of the target language society, the same idea was introduced by Falk (1978); those kind of students are more successful in learning a foreign language more than other students (as cited in Jafari, 2013).
Instrumental motivation rather than having a personal goal; students tend to learn a language for functional reasons such as getting a job, passing an examination, or just for the sake of education ( Gardner & Lambert, 1959, as cited in Crookes & Schmidt, 1989). According to Spolsky (1989) “it is worth mentioning that an instrumental motivation is referred to a specific goal. If the goal is continuous, it seems possible that an instrumental motivation would also continue to be active” (as cited in Jafari, 2013, p. 1915). Instrumental motivation remains active as long as the goal exists.
2.3.2. Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation is the performance of any activity in order to obtain an outcome. “Extrinsic motivation is driven by external factors such as parental pressure, societal expectations, academic requirements, or other sources of rewards and punishments” (Richards & Schmidt, 2010, p.378). For instance, an individual who participates in an activity to receive praise, money, or a reward, as well as avoiding punishment from an external figure is characterized as possessing extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation has short-term characteristics. If motivation to learn an L2 is to pass a class or receive an academic degree, then once completing this goal, there might be no point for an individual to continue studying after attending their aim (Santrock, 2011, p.441).
On the other hand, intrinsic motivation “comes from within the individual”. Thus a person might be motivated by the enjoyment of the learning process itself or by a desire to make themselves feel better (Harmer, 2001, p.51). For example, a student who completes an activity for his/her own enjoyment without pressure from an outside source to participate in the task could be considered as an intrinsic motivation. Language students who are intrinsically motivated possess a strong will to work to improve their skills and gain competence. These types of students are more likely to increase their capabilities (Santrock, 2011, p.445). Intrinsic motivation has long-term goals. It can be long lasting and it can remain even after the learning process is finished.
2.4. The Importance of Motivation
“
Most teachers and researchers have widely accepted motivation as one of the key factors which influence the rate and success of second/foreign language learning” (Anjomshoa&Sadighi, 2015, p.130). Motivation is considered the stepping stone for FLL, as it is the first factor that students need to start their road toward success or failure; therefore it is important for both students and teachers. Motivated students tend to be more successful due to their continuous search for success and they tend to be more active in class by asking questions about things they do not understand, pursuing knowledge, participating in activities, and paying attention to the teacher. Whereas unmotivated students do not give much importance to the language they are learning, get distracted in class, and neglect their activities which leads to their failure. According to Dornyei and Csizer (1998) motivation plays a role in the achievement of students, and without it even students with talents will not be able to fulfil their goal in language learning. The more motivated the students are, the more success they achieve.Motivation does not only play a role in the success or failure of language learning, but it has a role in driving the teacher to be enthusiastic about his/her job and helps him/her to create a motivating environment inside the classroom. If the teacher is motivated, he/she will use all his/her power and capacities into teaching and this will drive the students to work harder (Gilakjani, Leong, &Sabouri, 2012).
2.5. Theories of Motivation
2.5.1.Expectancy-Value Theory
Expectancy-value theory has a long history in psychology. The terms expectancy and value were first introduced by Lewin (1938) and Tolman (1932) “Lewin discussed how the value (or valence) of an activity influenced its importance to the individual, and Tolman discussed how expectancies for success function in different areas” (Wigfield, Tonks, & Klauda, 2009, p.55). Atkinson was the first who introduced an expectancy-value based model; he called it mathematical expectancy-value model, in his model Atkinson introduced the relationship between achievement motives, expectancies for success, and incentive values; he concluded that they all determine achievement behaviours (Wigfield, Cambria, 2010, p.3).
We distinguish between two important factors in this theory which are expectancy and values. Expectancy of success is the individual‟s expectations on how well he/she will do on a given task and value is the importance he/she gives to that task (Dornyei, Ushioda, 2011, p.13). Expectancy-value theory is based on the idea that students will learn better if they have an expectancy to succeed “we do things best if we believe we can succeed” (Dornyei, 2001, p.57). However, this idea alone is not enough; it is not enough to have high expectations to succeed, it needs to be accompanied by positive values; the students besides having high expectations to succeed in carrying out a task, they also need to enjoy that task to succeed in achieving their aims (Dornyei, 2001, p.57). According to Dornyei and Ushioda (2011) the
students‟ motivation to perform a task, its outcomes, and persistence depends solely on their expectancies of how well they will perform it and on how much they value its achievement.
It was discussed previously that expectancy and value go hand in hand and that students need to have both factors to be motivated and achieve success. Seifert and Sutton (2009) defined this relationship between expectancy and value as a multiplicative relationship of the sort expectancy x value = motivation, meaning that they both effect each other. If the student gives a high value to a task and zero or no expectations or if he/she has high expectations and gives zero value to the task then he/she will not be motivated. Expectancy-value theory emphasized the importance of having both high Expectancy-values and high expectations for students to be motivated, however, students in real life do not always live up to those requirements, here is where the teacher plays a role in adjusting his/her students‟ expectations as well as values by following a number of suggestions given by Seifert and Sutton (2009): -The task‟s level of difficulty should neither be too hard nor too easy.
-Careful planning and selection of objectives.
-Provide the students with supportive materials and give them help when needed.
Dornyei (2001) suggested some methods that the teacher can follow in order to help his/her students achieve success:
-The teacher should prepare his/her students well before they carry out the task by giving them some pre-task activities and good selection of strategies and procedures.
-Besides offering his/her assistance, the teacher should allow his/her students to work in pairs or small groups; peer assistance reassures students because they will all work to achieve the same goal.
